Philosophy of Education
Education has the potential to change individual lives and transform entire communities. Teaching is the act of providing students with the life skills and resources they need to reach their full potential in order to positively impact their families, their communities and themselves. My experience teaching English in a rural town in Chile for one year has greatly influenced the lens through which I see the world. Through this experience, I have developed a strong passion for empowering today’s disadvantaged youth through education.
I believe that teaching is a form of activism. At the heart of my teaching, I will enact social justice in the classroom and community. To me, social justice teaching is perfectly embodied in Laurence Tan’s The 5 E’s of Emancipatory Pedagogy: engage, educate, experience, empowerment of self, and enact (Tan, 2009). In order to engage my students and families, I will create culturally responsive curriculum that infuses youth culture into academics. The idea of teaching social justice is not possible without first grounding my teaching in the appropriate grade level standards and necessary academics to critically analyze society. I hope to empower my students to use what they learn in the classroom to enact social change outside the classroom by providing them with opportunities in the community to do so. For example, I think it is important to incorporate service-learning opportunities into the classroom to provide a real life aspect to learning. By combining community service with instruction, students will be able to use what they learn in the classroom to actively address real-life problems in their communities. This will create a student body who believe in their collective and individual power to make a difference in their community. Furthermore, I believe in acting as the liaison between the students’ families and outside community resources as I have learned that taking initiative is imperative in educating today’s youth. I believe in Paulo Freire's model of critical pedagogy to "name the problem, critically reflect, to act."I aim to give students opportunities to challenge the status quo, to go beneath the surface, and to develop leadership skills they can use in their community and throughout the course of their lives.
My student teaching experience in bilingual schools across San Diego County have greatly shaped my philosophy of teaching and learning. I believe that in order to support the diverse needs of a student body, it is imperative that we support our students’ language needs to provide English language learners with access to the curriculum. I believe in the power of valuing the students’ native language and strategically using their native language as a springboard to increase their English language development. I am very passionate about working with English language learners and employing effective teaching strategies to best support their language needs. By presenting the content in multiple ways through increased visuals, teacher modeling, and kinesthetic response, we will effectively engage our English language learners and best support their individual needs. Furthermore, I believe in the power of scaffolding lessons that follow a gradual release of responsibility model to ensure the student’s academic success. More specifically, in my student teaching practice I have created lessons that follow the “I do- we do- you do” model in which I gradually scaffold instruction to eventually increase the students’ role in their own learning by the end of each lesson. This model is incredibly effective because students are explicitly given all the tools they need to then explore and discover on their own. In order to provide access to academic language across content areas, I believe it is important to employ various teaching strategies that build upon the students’ strengths and how they learn best. In my student teaching experience working with English language learners, I have intentionally employed the use of sentence frames, realia, think aloud models, think-pair-shares, non-verbal cues, modified teacher talk, connections to self, visuals, and illustrated vocabulary charts to make content accessible and to promote the production of academic language.
Every student brings with them a unique set of abilities, interests, passions, backgrounds, histories and strengths outside of school. It is our responsibility as educators to truly get to know each one of our students and value what they bring with them into our classroom. I aim to create a student-centered environment in my classroom that plays upon students’ strengths. I believe that developing a curriculum that is based on students’ interests will add meaningful, contextual relevance to a child’s life. In turn, this will increase students’ intrinsic motivation and desire to learn. We as teachers must know our students’ abilities, skills, and strengths outside of school in order to inform our curriculum and lesson plans inside the classroom.
Technology is a very powerful tool in the classroom that can increase student engagement level when used meaningfully and intentionally. It is vital that we, as educators, prepare and equip our students so that they are able to succeed in an increasingly technologically-driven world. The use of technology can enhance the academic curriculum and be a point of access for certain students. As a teacher, I will use the Document Camera, Promethean Board, FlipChart, and iPads to supplement my teaching practice and reach all different kinds of learners. This year, I have had the opportunity to see how technology gives voice to the voiceless. Technology can serve as adaptive equipment available to support the needs of students in special education. The use of voice-output switches gives the non-verbal students a means of communication and the use of digital storytelling allows students to visually see and hear instructions. In this way, technology provides individual differentiation which is necessary for students’ success in the classroom and outside the classroom as well.
As a future educator, I will set up high expectations of my students. I have realized that expectations play a great role in determining student success. Oftentimes, teachers place low expectations on their students of low socioeconomic status which I believe only perpetuates the achievement gap and psychologically inhibits a students’ educational experience. I am a firm believer that expectations (from the teacher and student) greatly influence a students’ achievement level. I believe in exposing all students to a rich, engaging curriculum rather than a “watered-down” curriculum as means of increasing expectations in the classroom.
I am a firm believer in collaborating with other educators as means of improving one’s teaching practice. It is very important as a teacher to create a support system of colleagues and fellow teachers to share your insights with and to learn from as well. Collectively, you can collaborate to improve your practice and find ways to improve student learning in your classroom and within the school. Critical reflection is an integral part of teaching and can be enhanced through this intentional process. It is equally important to seek out opportunities for professional development to keep your teaching practice fresh and relevant. I have found great inspiration and encouragement through the California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE). By attending the CABE Conference this year, I was exposed to the latest research in how to build teachers' cultural competence as a way of challenging teacher assumptions. I believe that teachers should be aware of not imposing their beliefs, ideas and assumptions on their students' cultures. Professional development opportunities such as CABE can renew a sense of excitement and motivation to better one’s teaching practice in order to positively impact student success.
I believe in combining academic achievement, character development, social and emotional learning, and critical pedagogy to create a community of innovative critical thinkers who are ready to become the leaders of the future. As a teacher, I will work everyday to inspire my students’ heart, mind, soul and character. Education is so much more than what goes on in the classroom from 8am to 3pm everyday; rather, it is the process of applying the knowledge first learned in the classroom to a real world context in order to help improve the lives of those around you. I strongly believe that education is the key to changing the world.
I believe that teaching is a form of activism. At the heart of my teaching, I will enact social justice in the classroom and community. To me, social justice teaching is perfectly embodied in Laurence Tan’s The 5 E’s of Emancipatory Pedagogy: engage, educate, experience, empowerment of self, and enact (Tan, 2009). In order to engage my students and families, I will create culturally responsive curriculum that infuses youth culture into academics. The idea of teaching social justice is not possible without first grounding my teaching in the appropriate grade level standards and necessary academics to critically analyze society. I hope to empower my students to use what they learn in the classroom to enact social change outside the classroom by providing them with opportunities in the community to do so. For example, I think it is important to incorporate service-learning opportunities into the classroom to provide a real life aspect to learning. By combining community service with instruction, students will be able to use what they learn in the classroom to actively address real-life problems in their communities. This will create a student body who believe in their collective and individual power to make a difference in their community. Furthermore, I believe in acting as the liaison between the students’ families and outside community resources as I have learned that taking initiative is imperative in educating today’s youth. I believe in Paulo Freire's model of critical pedagogy to "name the problem, critically reflect, to act."I aim to give students opportunities to challenge the status quo, to go beneath the surface, and to develop leadership skills they can use in their community and throughout the course of their lives.
My student teaching experience in bilingual schools across San Diego County have greatly shaped my philosophy of teaching and learning. I believe that in order to support the diverse needs of a student body, it is imperative that we support our students’ language needs to provide English language learners with access to the curriculum. I believe in the power of valuing the students’ native language and strategically using their native language as a springboard to increase their English language development. I am very passionate about working with English language learners and employing effective teaching strategies to best support their language needs. By presenting the content in multiple ways through increased visuals, teacher modeling, and kinesthetic response, we will effectively engage our English language learners and best support their individual needs. Furthermore, I believe in the power of scaffolding lessons that follow a gradual release of responsibility model to ensure the student’s academic success. More specifically, in my student teaching practice I have created lessons that follow the “I do- we do- you do” model in which I gradually scaffold instruction to eventually increase the students’ role in their own learning by the end of each lesson. This model is incredibly effective because students are explicitly given all the tools they need to then explore and discover on their own. In order to provide access to academic language across content areas, I believe it is important to employ various teaching strategies that build upon the students’ strengths and how they learn best. In my student teaching experience working with English language learners, I have intentionally employed the use of sentence frames, realia, think aloud models, think-pair-shares, non-verbal cues, modified teacher talk, connections to self, visuals, and illustrated vocabulary charts to make content accessible and to promote the production of academic language.
Every student brings with them a unique set of abilities, interests, passions, backgrounds, histories and strengths outside of school. It is our responsibility as educators to truly get to know each one of our students and value what they bring with them into our classroom. I aim to create a student-centered environment in my classroom that plays upon students’ strengths. I believe that developing a curriculum that is based on students’ interests will add meaningful, contextual relevance to a child’s life. In turn, this will increase students’ intrinsic motivation and desire to learn. We as teachers must know our students’ abilities, skills, and strengths outside of school in order to inform our curriculum and lesson plans inside the classroom.
Technology is a very powerful tool in the classroom that can increase student engagement level when used meaningfully and intentionally. It is vital that we, as educators, prepare and equip our students so that they are able to succeed in an increasingly technologically-driven world. The use of technology can enhance the academic curriculum and be a point of access for certain students. As a teacher, I will use the Document Camera, Promethean Board, FlipChart, and iPads to supplement my teaching practice and reach all different kinds of learners. This year, I have had the opportunity to see how technology gives voice to the voiceless. Technology can serve as adaptive equipment available to support the needs of students in special education. The use of voice-output switches gives the non-verbal students a means of communication and the use of digital storytelling allows students to visually see and hear instructions. In this way, technology provides individual differentiation which is necessary for students’ success in the classroom and outside the classroom as well.
As a future educator, I will set up high expectations of my students. I have realized that expectations play a great role in determining student success. Oftentimes, teachers place low expectations on their students of low socioeconomic status which I believe only perpetuates the achievement gap and psychologically inhibits a students’ educational experience. I am a firm believer that expectations (from the teacher and student) greatly influence a students’ achievement level. I believe in exposing all students to a rich, engaging curriculum rather than a “watered-down” curriculum as means of increasing expectations in the classroom.
I am a firm believer in collaborating with other educators as means of improving one’s teaching practice. It is very important as a teacher to create a support system of colleagues and fellow teachers to share your insights with and to learn from as well. Collectively, you can collaborate to improve your practice and find ways to improve student learning in your classroom and within the school. Critical reflection is an integral part of teaching and can be enhanced through this intentional process. It is equally important to seek out opportunities for professional development to keep your teaching practice fresh and relevant. I have found great inspiration and encouragement through the California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE). By attending the CABE Conference this year, I was exposed to the latest research in how to build teachers' cultural competence as a way of challenging teacher assumptions. I believe that teachers should be aware of not imposing their beliefs, ideas and assumptions on their students' cultures. Professional development opportunities such as CABE can renew a sense of excitement and motivation to better one’s teaching practice in order to positively impact student success.
I believe in combining academic achievement, character development, social and emotional learning, and critical pedagogy to create a community of innovative critical thinkers who are ready to become the leaders of the future. As a teacher, I will work everyday to inspire my students’ heart, mind, soul and character. Education is so much more than what goes on in the classroom from 8am to 3pm everyday; rather, it is the process of applying the knowledge first learned in the classroom to a real world context in order to help improve the lives of those around you. I strongly believe that education is the key to changing the world.